Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Duck Stuff: Morning Mud

Morning Mud

•It's Pac-12 Media Day and Chip Kelly will have everyone's attention as he takes to the podium around 9:20am PDT this morning along with senior TE David Paulson. Inisde the article you will find a link to watch the live stream.

•Rob Moseley lays out some of the new officiating rules that were shared with reporters yesterday from Pac-12 coordinator of football officiating Tony Corrente and football officiating consultant Mike Pereira.

Unlike Boise-Georgia, both teams in this game, not just one, start the season with legit national title hopes (and both could be ranked in the preseason top 5). And unlike Boise, life gets no easier for either team once this game is over. On the positive side, a close loss might not sting so bad if both teams spend the remainder of the season battling for conference titles and for spots in the top 10, which they should. Still, the loser of this game could end up regretting having scheduled it by season's end.

•Ted Miller recaps all of his position reviews and gives each category point values. Oregon and USC come out on top.

•Bob Rickert has another of his Q&A pieces, "Once a Duck always a Duck," with former RB Reuben Droughns.

•Jeff Maehl has reportedly agreed to a free agent contract with the Houston Texans. It should become official later today.

•The Heisman Pundit lays out what they think are the steps LMJ needs to take to secure the Heisman Trophy.

James has an opportunity to do, or be a part of, some huge things in 2011. Playing well in wins over LSU and Stanford would serve him very well in the Heisman race. Get past the Tigers and the Cardinal and you have to like the Ducks’ chances of making it to New Orleans. But James could, with another fine season, push himself into second place on the all-time Pac-12 career rushing list. He’s 1,767 yards away from having only Heisman winner Charles White ahead of him. Furthermore, he’s likely to set the conference record for career touchdowns as well this year. Those kinds of achievements would be a real boon to his Heisman hopes.